Sennacherib - War With Babylon

War With Babylon

During his reign Sennacherib encountered various problems with Babylonia. His first campaign took place in 703 BC against Marduk-apla-iddina II who had seized the throne of Babylon and gathered an alliance supported by Chaldeans, Aramaeans, and Elamites. We can date the visit of Babylonian ambassadors to Hezekiah of Judah in this period. The allies wanted to make use of the unrest that arose at the accession of Sennacherib. Sennacherib split his army and had one part attack the stationed enemy at Kish while he and the rest of the army proceeded to capture the city Cutha. After that was done the king returned swiftly to aid the rest of his army. The rebellion was defeated and Marduk-apla-iddina II fled. Babylon was taken, and its palace plundered but its citizens were left unharmed. The Assyrians searched for Marduk-apla-iddina II, especially in the southern marshes, but he was not found. The rebellion forces in the Babylonian cities were wiped out and a Babylonian named Bel-ibni who was raised at the Assyrian court was placed on the throne. When the Assyrians left, Marduk-apla-iddina II started to prepare another rebellion. In 700 BC the Assyrian army returned to fight the rebels in the marshes again. Not surprisingly, Marduk-apla-iddina II fled again to Elam and died there.

Bel-Ibni proved to be disloyal to Assyria and was taken back a prisoner. Sennacherib tried to solve the problem of the Babylonian rebellion by placing someone loyal to him on the throne, namely his son Ashur-nadin-shumi. It didn’t help. Another campaign was led six years later, in 694 BC, to destroy the Elamite base on the shore of the Persian Gulf. To accomplish this, Sennacherib had obtained Phoenician and Syrian boats which sailed with the rest of his army down the Tigris to the sea. The Phoenicians were not used to the tide of the Persian Gulf which caused a delay. The Assyrians battled the Chaldeans at the river Ulaya and won the day. While the Assyrians were busy at the Persian Gulf, the Elamites invaded northern Babylonia in a complete surprise. Sennacherib's son was captured and taken to Elam and his throne was taken over by Nergal-ushezib. The Assyrians fought their way back north and captured various cities, in the meanwhile a year had passed as it was now 693 BC.

A large battle was fought against the Babylonian rebels at Nippur, their king was captured and in turn taken to Nineveh. For the loss of his son Sennacherib launched another campaign into Elam where his army started to plunder cities. The Elamite king fled to the mountains and Sennacherib was forced to return home because of the coming winter. Another rebellion leader, named Mushezib-Marduk claimed the Babylonian throne and was supported by Elam. The last great battle was fought in 691 BC with an uncertain result which enabled Mushezib-Marduk to remain on the throne for another two years. This was only a brief respite because shortly afterwards Babylon was besieged which led to its fall in 689 BC. Sennacherib claimed to have destroyed the city and indeed the city was unoccupied for several years.